Ghanascope

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

            I would ordinarily not be rejoining any article written and published by Harvard University’s Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and, as usual, seeking to scornfully blame continental Africans, as a whole, for the untold hardships and misery visited on African-Americans through the collaborative sale and enslavement of the latter by African and European elites. (more…)

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

                        First of all, we must take this prime opportunity to congratulate Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, the prominent Ghanaian economist, on his appointment as the next Vice-Chancellor of Ghana’s flagship academy, the University of Ghana (See “Prof. Aryeetey Is New V.C. For University Of Ghana” Ghanaweb.com 4/15/10). (more…)

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

            It used to be Mr. Victor Smith who trolled the airwaves quixotically defending his “Master Rawlings” against incontrovertible charges of flagrant incitement to violence by the notorious and extortionate, longtime Ghanaian dictator. And today, for his reward, Mr. Smith is a state ambassador – at least since the last time I read about him – representing us, supposedly, in Eastern Europe. (more…)

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

            Not quite awhile ago, when I observed that warts and all, the now-opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) was the only authentically democratic political machinery in Fourth-Republican Ghana, some readers were miffed. Some even went on to sarcastically enumerate for my enlightenment, supposedly, via e-mail and Internet chat-room comments, instances of perceived gross injustice – some dating back to the Busia-led Progress Party (PP) era – in which Danquah-leaning operatives allegedly travestied democratic culture. (more…)

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

            Here in the United States of America, while Gen. George Washington is revered for his yeomanly contribution to the foundation and development of arguably the most advanced modern mega-nation, it is Civil War-President Abraham Lincoln – the man credited with freeing African-Americans from the odious yoke of slavery – who is invariably accorded the coveted accolade of being the greatest American leader. (more…)

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

            As I vividly recall, he started life on the African political landscape as a 27-year-old anti-monarchist army captain and ended up a faux-monarch himself with a close-knit dynasty run by a network of his own children, relatives and trusted lieutenants and cronies. He was also first a firebrand Arab nationalist; and then when his largely exuberant ideas for the establishment of an exclusive Arab empire spanning most of North Africa and the so-called Middle-East did not seem to bear any appreciable fruits, at least not as well and fast as he desired, he bitterly abandoned this project in favor of Islamism, (more…)

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

            Among the Akan of southern and central Ghana, there is a maxim which loosely translates as follows: “Under almost any circumstance, death must be preferred over humiliation.” For the Akan, therefore, it can hardly be gainsaid that the salient gauge of a civilized society, perforce, includes the level and extent to which the tenets of human dignity and human rights, in general, are both observed and enforced by the statal apparatus. And it is also not for naught that the Akan are fond of saying that: “No level of humn degradation is befitting of an Akan person.” (more…)

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

            As usual, I hardly expected much that was edifying from the government-owned Ghanaian “Spectator” newspaper editorial captioned “Cheapening Nkrumah’s Name and Image” (See Modernghana.com 3/14/10). Under the guise of seeking to preserve the memory and dignity of Ghana’s first postcolonial premier, the apparently self-centered Spectator editorialist – the rather pontifical writer kept using the first-person pronoun “I” – launched an unpardonably gratuitous tirade against some Ghanaian entrepreneurs whose sole crime appeared to be the fact that they had characteristically taken advantage of the centenary birthday anniversary of Mr. Kwame Nkrumah to profitably promote their wares. (more…)

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

            When a candidate determined to clinch his party’s presidential nomination begins his campaign by vehemently denying queries about his questionable loyalty to the collective aspirations and interests of the membership of the very whose blessings he earnestly desires to realize his dream, there obviously is a recipe for disaster in the making. (more…)